When The Lights Go Down
by aeraquena
Summary: Mushroom Kingdom has fallen into desolation, and Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and Mario reflect on what was then and what is now.
1. Reflection

**When The Lights Go Down**

_When the lights go down _

_He'll be fillin' a pan with a broom in his hand _

_In some dive across town _

_He'll be wiping the bar, moppin' the floor _

_Countin' his tips, lockin' the doors _

_Wrestlin' the devil that tells him to pour another round _

Luigi sighed. He looked around. Emptiness. Desolation. Nothingness. Wiping some sweat off his greasy forehead, he felt a pang of realization. That cap. That familiar green cap was gone. He felt empty without it. Without Mario.

He silently chided himself. He should have gotten used to it by now. The days of glory... they were all gone. Not being in the spotlight, but right there beside it. He had always taken it for granted. Living vicariously through his brother... He had thought that those days would last forever.

He had thought wrong.

_When the lights go down _

_She'll be callin' her friends from her Mercedes Benz _

_But it's too late now _

_They were there for the fame, the flash and the thrill _

_For the drop of the name, the parties, the pills _

_As another star falls from the Hollywood Hills without a sound _

She had expected someone to come for her. Respond to her cry of despair. Back at the castle... she was everything. Now... she was nothing. Nothing at all.

Where was everything when she needed it the most? Why had she taken her perfect life for granted? Why had she thought that it would never end?

Shaking her head, Peach slid into the car, wondering if she remembered the way home.

_When the lights go down and there's nothing left to be _

_When the lights go down and the truth is all you see _

_When you feel that hole inside your soul _

_And wonder what you're made of _

_Well we all find out _

_When the lights go down _

None of it had mattered.

All the battles he had fought, all the lives he had ruthlessly took... they had amounted to nothing.

Nothing but regret.

It filled Bowser's body, drained out his soul, and left only silence in its wake.

_When the lights go down _

_At the end of the day when this game that I play _

_Has gone another round _

_As I lay there alone on this big empty bed _

_With nothing but thoughts of you in my head _

_I think of the things that I wish I had said _

_When you were still around _

_No, _he thought. _No! _

Her face... her lovely face, smiling up at him. His arm around her neck. Picture of happiness. Picture of his past.

Why was it so hard letting go?

He hadn't seen her in ages. He wondered how she was doing. _No. Don't think about her. _

Mario violently ripped the photo in half, leaving a crooked edge. Straight down the middle. Torn to shreds.

Just like his life.

_When the lights go down and there's nothing left to be _

_When the lights go down and the truth is all you see _

_And I wonder if all my life's about _

_The sum of all my fear and all my doubts _

_Yeah, when the lights go down _

_And there's nothing left to be _

_When the lights go down and the truth is all you see _

_When you feel that hole inside your soul _

_And wonder what you're made of _

_Well we all find out _

_When the lights go down _


	2. Isolation

**Chapter 1**

"Luigi?"

He shook himself awake. Tried to recognize the voice. Where was he, anyway?

An empty beer bottle. A greasy surface. The bar... it was just the bar. He must have passed out or something. Or fallen asleep, considering the circumstances.

"Luigi, is that you?"

"Mm." He looked up. His boss stood there with a condescending face. Guilt struck him.

"You didn't..."

"Yeah, I fell asleep." Luigi's voice came out muffled.

Silence.

"... You... you didn't let some idiot come and take the tip jar, did you?"

He glanced toward the jar. Half-empty. Or half-full.

That was what Mario would have said...

Why? Why did he think about his brother at a time like this? He would never see his brother again. He had to face the truth.

"Uh, no."

His boss nodded. "You going to work the day shift, too?"

No. No, he wasn't. He wasn't going to be wasting his life - what was left of it, anyway - in this misery, this emptiness. He wasn't going to spend the rest of his life in a bar. He wanted to lash out at his boss, curse him for taking away the life he once lived, the glory days, the days spent by his brother's side... he would stand up and step out into a world of opportunity... a world of eternal happiness... a world where everything was going to be okay... Mushr...

"... Yeah, I will."

With a slight affirmative glance in his direction, his boss sauntered out, satisfied that he had such a dependable employee. And Luigi sat among the piles of beer cans, took his head in his hands, and cried.


End file.
